A big year for Marvel’s First Family…
You might have heard rumblings about this but now we can tell you officially: Marvel in 2025 will continue its yearlong Facsimile Edition concept, with Fantastic Four and The X-Men getting the kind of treatment that Secret Wars and The Amazing Spider-Man did in 2024.
Specifically, we’ll see the first 12 issues of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s Fantastic Four — which in 1961 launched the Marvel Age (and Marvel’s Silver Age) — monthly, beginning in January. For The X-Men, it will be the Dark Phoenix Saga — and you can click here to read all the details about that.
In addition, as in 2024, there will be wild-card slots that will allow Marvel to produce other Facsimile Editions not connected to those titles. (This year, it was an assortment of mutants, Godzilla, Kraven the Hunter and Captain America.) For January, it will be a new printing of The Amazing Spider-Man #129 Facsimile Edition. Click here for the deets.
Dig the solicitation info, which will be officially released later in October:
FANTASTIC FOUR #1 FACSIMILE EDITION – NEW PRINTING!
Written by STAN LEE
Penciled by JACK KIRBY
Cover by JACK KIRBY • VARIANT COVER BY TBA • FOIL VARIANT COVER ALSO AVAILABLE
Stan Lee and Jack Kirby changed super-hero storytelling forever when they introduced Reed Richards, Ben Grimm and Susan and Johnny Storm. Together, the adventurous quartet blast off on an experimental rocket flight – only to be bombarded by life-altering cosmic rays! Reed becomes the elastic Mister Fantastic! Ben transforms into the rocky Thing! Sue turns into an Invisible Girl! And Johnny flames on as the Human Torch! They’ll use their incredible powers to help humankind – starting by fending off the menace of the Mole Man! The book that started it all is re-presented in full – including its original ads! It’s the next best thing to buying FANTASTIC FOUR #1 off the stands back in 1961! Reprinting FANTASTIC FOUR (1961) #1.
32 PGS./All Ages… $4.99
On Sale 1/8
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Several thoughts:
— Why Fantastic Four? Why, there’s a big movie next year, silly.
— This is the second time Marvel has released FF#1 as a Facsimile Edition. The first time was in 2018. The other issues have never been released as FEs.
— Marvel is doing these yearlong runs so they can collect the issues — ads and all — into Gallery Edition hardcovers, which are slightly smaller than Bronze Age treasury editions.
— The foil cover and variant cover prices have yet to be announced.
— Hopefully, Marvel will take a cue from DC and move the UPC symbol to the back.
— Obligatory Price Comparison: It’s highly unlikely you’ll ever come across an unslabbed original, but a slabbed 9.6-grade copy sold just last month through Heritage Auctions for $2,040,000, including buyer’s premium. A 2018 Facsimile Edition recently sold on eBay for just shy of $50.
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MORE
— X-MEN: DARK PHOENIX SAGA to Be Reprinted as FACSIMILE EDITIONS Through 2025. Click here.
— AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #129: Marvel to Publish New Printing of FACSIMILE EDITION. Click here.
October 10, 2024
Hey, MARVEL, I’ll make it easy for you. I’ll take 4 copies each of the first 120 issues, plus annuals!
October 10, 2024
Hopefully, Marvel will take an additional cue from DC and print these on newsprint-like paper. The 1960s facsimiles feel funky on glossy or matte paper.
October 10, 2024
Excellent point.
October 10, 2024
The flat four-color printing we grew up with looks terrible on glossy stock. Now if they wanted to recolor them…
October 10, 2024
More than likely they’ll use the Re-Masterworks coloring and use mattelike paper.
October 10, 2024
This is grand and glorious news! Fantastic Four #1 was the first of the “modern” Facsimile Editions, so I’m glad it’s getting a new printing. And not just the first issue, but the first year! Wow!
Unfortunately, the 2018 FF #1 facsimile had a couple problems. For some reason, the date on the cover was changed from NOV to AUG.
More importantly, the Famous Artists Schools ad presented in the 2018 facsimile as the back cover was not the actual back cover of the 1961 Fantastic Four #1. The layout of the text is different, the studio numbers used on the coupon are different (5386 on the 1961 original, 7386 on the 2018 Facsimile Edition) and the “Some of the people Dorne has helped” section leads off with different people the ad says Dorne has helped (Don Smith of New Orleans on the 1961 original, payroll clerk Herb Smith on the 2018 Facsimile Edition). This same version was also used on the 1991 Marvel Milestone Edition facsimile.
I hope they use the correct version on the 2025 printing.
October 10, 2024
That is really strange about the ad. Perhaps it was some legal reason.
October 11, 2024
I’d guess laziness and inertia, more than anything else. The cover of the 1991 Marvel Milestone facsimile also had different coloring in the “Featuring” box and the cover price, and the FF logo was also a different color.
If memory serves me right, the 1991 Marvel Milestone facsimile of 1963’s X-Men #1 included the original 1963 indicia. Don’t remember if it also had a 1991 indicia or if it was just the original. (I don’t have access to my copy, it’s buried away somewhere.)
October 10, 2024
Man, I love really specific details. How on earth you gathered all of those inconsistencies, I will never know. I honestly feel like I should have you sign one of the new facsimile copies for me. (just to be clear, I intend no sarcasm here at all – just respect and loads of it)
November 3, 2024
Something I just noticed about the upcoming Fantastic Four #1 Facsimile Edition: according to the solicitation, it’ll be a 32-page magazine. That’s noteworthy because the original 2018 printing was 52 pages and had bonus material. So this will be FF #1’s first appearance as a “pure” facsimile.
November 10, 2024
Hopes risen but soon dashed. All I want is the comic scanned and printed as it was, warts and all, and suitable matt paper stock. It’s not rocket science. This new version sounds like a badly done vinyl reissue, complete with the wrong era label logo on the front!